mercy, agony, destiny
by A Wish On the Moon
Summary: He laughingly tells her that her voice is like a siren's song, sweet and alluring, even if she herself isn't so simple sugar, spice, and everything nice. Amethyst Ocean, Pitch Pearl, Pompous Pep, Gray Ghost. 25-Sentence Challenge. 980 words.


**Disclaimer**: I lay no claim to any licensed characters or intellectual properties that were used in the making of this work.

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i. grave

Sometimes, when the howling winds aren't enough to block out their sounds of anger and rage, it feels as if his own parents are stepping on his own grave.

ii. progress

There's nothing like the thrill of mastering a new ability, of learning something for himself; he's sure Mr. Lancer would call it progress.

iii. prohibit

He knows of the damage he could do if he lets himself go unchecked, knows of the destruction he could cause to those he cares about the most; he can never let himself go, never remove the chains he's imposed, for everyone's sake.

iv. shroud

When he shifts forms, it is as if a shroud has been lifted, and he can let himself breathe.

v. shutdown

When all he has left is the fruit loop, and all he's ever known is in ruins, he thinks it's okay to want to forget and be free.

vi. resent

When all the city he protects ever does is ridicule and degrade him, he tries to be bitter; in the end, the only one he has to resent is himself.

vii. residue

He lets ghostly fingertips trace ice along her windows, leaving behind traces of a phantom not yet at peace.

viii. remnant

As the people around him grow old with age, he never changes, constantly trapped in the adolescent body he'd died in; the two he had hoped would remain died young because he could not save them.

ix. recuperate

After nature runs through her veins, but before the frost encases his heart, he is defeated and his city taken over; all that's left to do is heal, and live to fight another day.

x. psych

Neither the phantom nor the human are sure which is which: some days it feels as if there are two halves merged together, competing for control, and other days it feels he is one and the same.

xi. obtain

It's strange how easily he could obtain riches as Freakshow's puppet, how easily he could sway the world with a few heroic acts; he's not sure whether to feel glad or upset, since the only thing he really wanted was to obtain peace.

xii. ocean

The sky and space are like the ocean, endless and open and free; he doesn't like to think about how easy it would be to let himself fall and drown in any of them.

xiii. melody

He laughingly tells her that her voice is like a siren's song, sweet and alluring, even if she herself isn't so simple sugar, spice, and everything nice.

xiv. memoire

To him, fire and ice are memoires of a future he needs to prevent, a future in which the world burns with the loss of what makes him human, and the ghostly ice of his ultimate enemy, himself, reigns supreme.

xv. marble

If the human's skin is like marble, fragile and smooth, the phantom thinks his skin is like sand, always shifting and trapped in the time of the electrocution; together, their skin is like ceramic glass, alive and dead and able to endure, though never quite the same.

xvi. innocent

Although the phantom is always falsely blamed for the many phantasms that haunt the town, the human isn't so naïve as to believe that his parents will accept their claims of innocence when they learn his secrets.

xvii. dead

In the realm of ghosts, he only has one foot in the grave, but in the realm of the living, he's all but dead to his teachers and peers; the phantom knows he is dead, cold and alone, but does the human?

xviii. alive

In that lab accident so long ago, he knows he must have half-died, if that makes any sense; he's warm, he can feel and breathe, and he knows he's still alive, though he doubts the phantom will believe him.

xix. phantom

Sometimes, if he looks hard enough in the mirror, he can see the electrical scars and green eyes and white hair superimposed over his own clear skin and blue eyes and black hair, but only if he looks for it; and, sometimes, he can still see the ghost of the fruit loop, be it at school or when he's alone, encouraging him; when he looks for them both, though, there's never anything there.

xx. human

It's hard to believe he's still human when all people ever do is stare at him in fear or anger, when all he can ever do is cause destruction and mayhem, when all he feels is cold darkness where there should be a warm heart beating.

xxi. fusion

When the human and the phantom disagree, they always fight for control of the body; the one time they do agree is when the girl they both love is falling to her death, and they forcefully break free of the shackles on their mind.

xxii. doctrine

People have been taught to fear ghosts, and ghosts have been known to be evil; he once believed that, as well, before the phantom and before he realized that not everything is black and white.

xxiii. chance

Although she hunted him down like an animal, he knew it was his fault; he gave her a chance to prove herself, and the Red Huntress soon became an ally, despite her misgivings.

xxiv. befuddle

Most of the time, he knows what to expect from his enemies; it's the few times that they show they worry and care that he feels confused.

xxv. amnesty

After the planet is saved, the fruit loop lost in space, and the girl he loves his, the ghosts have forgiven him for protecting his territory, and the humans have pardoned him from all his past actions; the only thing left, however, is to forgive himself for what he's about to do, because he doesn't think anyone realizes how much more phantom than human he's really become.


End file.
